hattie wrote:One of the best parts in the book was trying to understand Nanny speaking "foreign" loved it!!!! "mine hare" god I broke down laughing... silver plate...hilarious!!There's some I didn't understand though...I'll have to go and check. Did all of you understand everything Nanny said??

I loved that part as well. I suspect that some of them might be a bit difficult though. Let us know which ones you have a problem with.

I think my favourite was the Hotel Nova Cancies.

“Men never commit evil so fully and joyfully as when they do it for religious convictions.” – Blaise Pascal

This was my first truly laugh out loud witch book, I felt like I had to drag myself through Equal Rites and Wyrd Sisters took a few sittings. Witches Abroad I read overnight one Christmas whilst off work.

This book is funny from start to finish, my personal favourite part being the bull-chasing event when they all decide to have a tipple.

I think around this time in the DW series Terry was starting to master weaving comedy with deeper meaning. The entire book slams home Granny's forceful lesson to Magrat of what magic is, how little it resolves and how much to use it i.e. as little as possible.

My favourite quote from Granny is actually from this book.

"Haven't you got any romance in your soul?" said Magrat plaintively.
"No," said Granny. "I ain't. And stars don't care what you wish, and magic don't make things better, and no one doesn't get burned who sticks their hand in a fire. If you want to amount to anything as a witch, Magrat Garlick, you got to learn three things. What's real, what's not real, and what's the difference."

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard. H. L. Mencken

Beautiful Dirt wrote:This was my first truly laugh out loud witch book, I felt like I had to drag myself through Equal Rites and Wyrd Sisters took a few sittings.

Totally agree with this, I'm rereading the series and enjoyed Wyrd Sisters a lot more this time round (I love Macbeth) but Equal Rites was a drag.

I do like Mort and Guards Guards, but the first one in the series I really love is Reaper Man, and WA is pretty good too, but does anyone else find that the action scenes can sometimes be a bit confusingly written, especially in the earlier books?

Prolekult wrote:but does anyone else find that the action scenes can sometimes be a bit confusingly written, especially in the earlier books?

Yes, I've often felt this way (and I wouldn't say its something peculiar to the earlier ones). I remember not having a clue what was going on in the climax to The Fifth Elephant. I think Terry doesn't like spelling things out to his readers, which is fine most of the time, but I think action scenes really require step-by-step description.

I really should re-read some of the earlier books. I've done COM & TLF etc a few times. But I've only read books like Small Gods & Pyramids once, partly because I didn't enjoy them immensely the first time around but mostly because they're all packed away in boxes in my spare room from when we moved in nearly three years ago

Did anyone else find books like these hard work the first time around?

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard. H. L. Mencken

Tonyblack wrote:I've said it before and I'll say it again - Terry's books need to be read at least twice. You'll miss things the first time you read them for sure.

Re-reading a book to pick up a few references or implicit stuff that you missed first time around is fine. Having to re-read an action scene because you can't work out what the heck is happening is less fine.

I think I've read most of the books at least twice, and the ones which I haven't I probably will at some stage. bar UA which I'll most likely never read again.